Sunday, June 15, 2014

Movie Review: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

Last week’s viewing of Godzilla got me thinking about the
origin of the kaiju genre. It’s ultimately related to dinosaurs and our awe of
the huge and strange. King Kong certainly played its part, as it its own
inspiration, the 1925 Lost World. However, one film tied King Kong with
Godzilla, a missing link of movie monsters, between dinosaurs and kaiju. Today
we’re looking at Ray Harryhausen’s1953
opus, the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

The story of this film dates back to 1951. Ray Bradbury,
just starting his career as a writer by scribing short stories for magazines,
wrote a story called “The Fog Horn”, originally published as The Beast from
20,000 Fathomsthe Saturday Evening Post.The
tale is of two men working at a light house. The horn of the light house sounds
every night, but is answered. A giant sea creature from prehistoric times
mistakes the horn for the mating cry of its kind, and tries to court the house.
One night, the men turn off the horn. The monster is offended, thinking it was
rejected by its mate. In a rage, it destroys the lighthouse and the men barely
survive. The beast disappears into the waves, waiting until man has left the
earth.

Meanwhile,
Ukraine-born French art film director Eugene Lourie was thinking along the same
lines. He was inspired by American science fiction stories, and wanted to bring
one to the screen.He wanted to apply
new European film techniques to high-concept American stories, and so planned to
do a film on a prehistoric monster’s rampage in modern times.

The third piece of
the puzzle comes from a young animator, Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen was
exposed to King Kong at a young age, falling in love with the action, the
dinosaurs, and the effects.In 1939, he
met Ray Bradbury, and their shared fascination with dinosaurs, science fiction,
and fantasy forged a bond. In 1949 he fulfilled his dream of working with the
master behind Kong, Willis O’Brien.

Lourie approached
O’Brien with the idea. O’Brien, busy working on a sadly never-realized film
“Emilio and Guloso” (which would later be split into two movies by
Hollywood-the Beast of Hollow Mountain and the Brave One) , suggested Lourie
approach Harryhausen, as he knew that Harryhausen was eager to try a solo film
project.Harryhausen pointed out to
Lourie that his story was similar to one of Bradbury’s, and they approached
Bradbury for help on the screenplay. Bradbury was too busy to write it, but he
gave them his blessing and the rights to use the title of the story.Newbie producers Jack Dietz and Hal E
Chester, fans of Bradbury’s story, eagerly joined the venture.Together, this enterprising crew overcame
their inexperience to create a film that was the King Kong of the 1950s.

The film begins as
the credits play overfish in an
aquarium, setting a maritime atmosphere.As in many other films of the era, inspired by World War 2
documentaries, the stage is set by narration over military stock footage.
Thankfully, neither last long, only long enough to establish the setting of the
US army making tests in the Arctic. The sequence ends with an atomic explosion
before we enter the film proper.

We are introduced
to three military men-Colonel Evans, Dr. Nesbitt, and Dr. Ritchie. The last two
are nuclear scientists. Briefly, a huge blip on the radar appears, but it’s
ignored as the scientists go out to gather instrument readings on the
explosion. A blizzard begins, and they get lost in the storm. Ritchie briefly
sees a giant dinosaurian monsterbut falls
into a chasm. Nesbitt comes to his rescue, seeing the monster briefly before it
causes an avalanche that finishes off Ritchie and Nesbitt barely survives.

Nesbitt, refusing
to disbelieve what he saw, is taken to New York for psychiatric treatment.His claim is bolstered by the monsters’
second appearance-a nighttime attack on a fishing ship. Nesbitt tries to get a
biological explanation, visiting Dr. Elson, a paleontologist at the museum,
presenting him with the theory that dinosaurs could have been frozen by the ice
ages.Elson is sympathetic but skeptical
of the idea of a dinosaur surviving into modern times, but his assistant,
Hunter, argues for Nesbitt using the evidence of intact frozen mammoths.

Another ship sinks,
and Nesbitt investigates, but now with the help of Hunter. Hunter uses her
collection of pictures, mostly Charles Knight paintings, to identify the
animal.Nesbitt is touched by her
sympathy and they flirt.Eventually,
they track down a survivor, and take him to Dr. Elson. The survivor identifies
the same dinosaur as Nesbitt, convincing Dr. Elson. Elson calls the animal a
“Rhedosaurus”, an ancestor of sauropods, and now alarmed calls the army.

While Nesbitt and
Elson try to get the government involved, the Rhedosaurus

makes another attack.
This time, it attacks a lighthouse as in the original story in a beautifully
shot scene.This convinces Evans, and he
manages to get more information from the Coast Guard.Evans, Elson, Hunter and Nesbitt meet at
Evan’s office, where Elson finds a pattern in the sightings: the animal is
moving south and heading towards New York. Elson declares his desire tohave the animal captured alive and requests a
diving bell to investigate.

Elson gets his requests, and divesinto the Hudson River Canyon despite Hunter’s
misgivings. “This is such a strange feeling, I feel as though I'm leaving a
world of untold tomorrows for a world of countless yesterdays. “He witnesses a fight between a shark and octopus
until both are devoured by the beast. Elson witnesses the animal, calling it a
“Paleolithic survivor”, where the “dorsal is singular, not bilateral” and “the
suspension of the clavicle is cantilevric”but interrupted when the monster eats his bell.

Time for some
trivia and explanation:the Paleolithic
is a paleoanthopological term referring to the earliest hominin tools, less
than 3 million years ago, long after the dinosaurs had become fossils.The dorsal refers to the top of the spine,
specifically the curved tuatara-like ridge running along the back of the
Rhedosaurus.The clavicle, or collar
bones, tell a lot about where the animal fits taxonomically. The clavicles of
theropods (including birds) fuse into one bone, the furcula. http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/the-furcula/ Pterosaurs and crocodiles do not have
clavicles at all, but dinosaurs, phytosaurs, rauisuchians and other archosaurs
have them. Furthermore, all synapsids (mammals and our ancestors and their
relatives) and most reptiles have them as well. That eliminates it being a
crocodilian, but says little else.

The next scene is a
quiet one, with Hunter mourning the loss of her mentor and Nesbitt trying to
comfort her. We return to the action with the Rhedosaurus landing at the docks
and rampaging around Brooklyn. People panic and flee as the monster wrecks
buildings, smashes and bite cars, and kills a defiant police officer.The NYPD rides to the rescue, but their
rifles only hurt the animal without delivering any real damage. Wall Street is
left in ruins and the monster stomps off.A news report provides exposition of the situation and a
transition to the National Guard being called in. Under Evans, they battle the
monster at night while Nesbitt and Hunter watch. Finally, it is stopped by an
electric fence and forced to retreat when shot by bazookas.

The soldiers pursue the trail of blood, but succumb to a
horrific fever. The animal is carrying a powerful virus in its blood, and so
conventional weapons would only spread the death.As the Rhedosaurus licks its wounds in Coney
Island, Nesbitt comes up with a new plan. A radioactive isotope, shot into the
dinosaur’s bloodstream, will kill off both the virus and the animal in a single
blow. The problem-there’s only one shot and the Rhedosaurus has only one wound.

The isotope, shaped into a small grenade, comes with a
sniper, Colonel Stone.

“Colonel
says you need a dead shot, mister.”

“Yes.
Ever use a grenade rifle? “

“Pick
my teeth with it. “

“You know
what an isotope is?”

“No,
but if you can load it, I can fire it”

“Good.
Just remember one thing; this is the only isotope of its kind this side of Oak
Ridge, so you can’t miss”

The Rhedosaurus has taken the roller coaster as a den, and
it blocks a clean shot. Nesbitt improvises, the two of them riding a roller
coaster car. Stone manages to make his shot, but the car rolls off and causes a
fire. They escape the conflagration as the Rhedosaurus dies with the roller
coaster collapsing behind it. The end

Despite forming a connection between King Kong and Godzilla,
it’s not as good as either. It doesn’t
have the action beats of Kong, or the spectacle and drama of Godzilla. However,
it’s a worthy link between them.The
acting is solid; Swiss-born Paul Hubschmid made only a few films in the states,
but is a charismatic and likable lead, while Academy Award nominee Cecil
Callaway steals the scenes he’s in, and when his character dies, it’s genuinely
tragic.Lee Van Cleef, playing Colonel
Stone, is in only his fourth picture, but makes a memorable impression in his
brief scene.

Lourie is a fine director, making great use of lighting and
showing a real sense of sincerity for the film; it’s not just exploitation or
spectacle, but also a compelling drama about Nesbitt, Hunter, and the
Rhedosaurus.

Of course, the real crown goes to Ray Harryhausen. He
instills a real character to the Rhedosaurus-a proud animal, full of
destructive vitality. The death scene is especially reminiscent of King
Kong-you can tell Harryhausen was inspired by Kong’s pathos as the confused,
pained dinosaur writhes on the sand. The
Rhedosaurus never inspires the same sympathy as Kong, but Harryhausen makes you
sorry to see it die. You can easily say
this is the best special effects film since King Kong, and a worthy successor.
It’s easy to see why Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, and especially Eiji
Tsuburaya loved this film. In addition to Godzilla, this inspired dozens of
successors, including a British quasi –remake with Willis O’Brien’s last
dinosaur, Behemoth the Sea Monster.In
hindsight, Gojira is the only film that surpasses, let alone equals, this
original film.

However, it resembles Triassic predators-very early
ancestors of crocodiles and dinosaurs. There is one in particular that resembles
Rhedosaurus quite a bit- Quianosuchus http://archive.today/VsrS
. Quianosuchus was a predatory quadruped reptile with amphibious adaptations,
much like Rhedosaurus. It’s an early animal, showing that archosaurs
diversified very early on in the Triassic.

I give this film an 81. Not perfect, but a strong movie, and
I certainly recommend it to anyone interested in animation, spectacle, and
dinosaurs.

About Me

Hi everyone! You may know me already, but 99% of you won't. I've decided to make a blog for myself. I'm a anthropology student who has returned to his original passion for palaeontology. Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated with the weird and wonderful animals that have inhabited our planet and I've made this blog to keep this in my mind and hopefully in yours. Most people blog about their interests, and while I've got a range of interests-see history and anthropology above, not to mention zoology, astronomy, art, cooking, science fiction and fantasy films and literature, and a myriad of others, the one I want to do for a living is the study of Earth's ancient past.

On this blog I'll review papers, talk about fossils, museums, and taxa, review art, film, literature, and our culture's view of paleontology, and share memories and insights. I've been inspired by the far better blogs of professional palaeontologists, and I'll share them as time goes on. I'm also open to requests and questions of opinions, the latest palaeo news, and discussions with other fans informal and professional.

I think this is going to have fun, and I'm hoping my readers will have just as much fun.

Copyright: All media and print reviewed belongs to the owners and publishers. Likewise, all art used for this blog belongs to their artists. This is a non-profit blog for education and entertainment.